As the July sun and Romanian humidity beat down on her pink blouse, Cristina stood at the gates of the U.S. embassy in Bucharest, Romania, the knot in the bottom of her stomach bringing her down like a lead weight.
After two hours of waiting, Cristina entered the embassy, ready to face the interview that would decide the fate of her impending American Visa. Adding to her anxiety were the strange voices speaking Romanian in awkward accents.
Like Cristina Catuna, a senior from Romania majoring in social work, hundreds of international students go through this same moment, traveling to the United States every year to further their education at BYU.
Like Catuna, many of them fall in love and find their eternal companions while here. On top of reports, projects and final exams, these students have to plan a wedding. And on top of a wedding, these students have to figure out a way to stay in the country they have grown to love with the person they now love as well.
Catuna first heard about BYU and the LDS church through Scott and Laurie Lundberg, a Salt Lake City couple serving at an orphanage in Barlad, Romania, Catuna's hometown. In need of a translator, the Lundbergs spent hours with Catuna as she improved her English, and furthered her desire to become a social worker.
The family recommended Catuna to attend the BYU School of Social Work. Upon being accepted to BYU, she immediately began the immigration process.
Within minutes of her interview, the embassy granted Catuna's wish. She was going to get her student visa to study in Provo.
A young Romanian woman greeted her in a small cubicle-like office space. Glancing at the girl's acceptance letter to BYU, the interview to determine the success of her visa began.
"So, are you a Mormon?" the interviewer said.
"No," Cristina replied.
"Are you going to become a Mormon?" came the interviewer's next question.
"No, I'm Orthodox," Cristina said nonchalantly, barely grasping the meaning of the statement at the time.
Years later, she would reflect on those words and laugh as she prepared to marry an American BYU law student in the LDS temple.
On Aug. 16, 2004, Catuna stepped onto American soil for the first time, eager to begin her new adventure as an international student. Now in her last semester of undergraduate studies, Catuna was recently engaged to Brandon Boey, a second-year law student from Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, Romania, like other embassies around the world, maintains a controversial, seemingly unfair system of visa applications. An immediate fee of $170 is assessed to each applicant for an interview that oftentimes leads to a one-minute, two-question interview from a foreign official. The whole system appears to be based on a first-come, first-serve, lottery-like luck-of-the-draw, Boey said. The "lottery" feel to the visa application comes because of a government-mandated quota that must be filled in a specific amount of time.
"The Romanian embassy workers know they can't give out visas to everybody, so they give them out arbitrarily instead," Boey said.
And that's just the beginning of the international student's journey to Provo.
Part 2 of this three-part series on U.S. naturalization will focus on the requirements international students like Catuna face as they attempt to solidify themselves as Americans.
Copyright Brigham Young University 7 Apr 2008
